Disney to Buy Club Penguin — Seeking to bolster its online presence among kids, Walt Disney Co. said it is buying the popular Club Penguin virtual community for $350 million in cash. — Disney said it had agreed to pay up to another $350 million to Club Penguin's founders …

Bubble 2.0 Coming Soon — Every single person working in the media today who experienced the dot-com bubble in 1999 to 2000 believes that we are going through the exact same process and can expect the exact same results—a bust. It's déjà vu all over again.

Console mod-chippers busted in nationwide raids — Federal agents have carried out a series of raids against individuals and businesses in 16 states as part of an investigation into the distribution and sale of mod chips. Dubbed "Operation Tangled Web", the 32 search warrants were executed …

GoFish Abandons Bolt Purchase, Licensing Issues Blamed — Video-sharing destination GoFish is now abandoning its purchase of Bolt, according to sources to Digital Music News. The acquisition, first reported in February, involved a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $30 million.

Rockstar finally appeals BBFC's Manhunt ban — Publisher applied for hearing yesterday — MCV has learnt that Rockstar has lodged an official plea with the Video Appeals Committee over Manhunt 2's ban - the UK body that has the power to overturn the British Board of Film Classification's decision to keep the title off shelves.

Why we must close the net — Web rant ... Sir Elton says the internet is destroying music — POP legend Sir Elton John wants the internet CLOSED DOWN. — Never one to keep his opinions to himself, the Rocket Man has waded into cyberspace with all guns blazing.

Mozilla to give away own security testing tools — JavaScript fuzzer that's found 'dozens' of Firefix bugs is first, others to follow — Mozilla Corp. will release some of its home-grown security tools to the open-source community, the company's head of security said today, starting with a …

How long will it take at rush hour? — Let's say you want to leave from Berkeley to catch the sunset from the beach at Half Moon Bay, to relax on the sand and watch the sun sink into the Pacific. We all know Google Maps will tell you how to get there. Now it's better at helping you decide when to leave to catch your sunset on time.

Microsoft to delay Office for Mac 2008 — Mac users must wait until next year for fresh versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as Microsoft moves its intended launch of Office for Mac 2008 to January from the second half of this year. — "We had hoped to hit the Christmas selling season …

Have Skype SMS your Voicemail text: By Late 2007 — Thanks to a deal between Skype and SpinVox, Skype customers can [now] soon get their voicemail messages converted to text and sent to their mobile phones via SMS. The service launches soon [today], and will be available in English, Spanish, French and German.

Sprint Pulls Out Of Cable Spectrum Venture — If a consortium of cable giants bids on spectrum in the upcoming FCC auction, Sprint Nextel will not be part of the bid. The 10Q Time Warner Cable filed this morning reveals that Sprint has exercised its option to exit SpectrumCo …

Ringtones in your home: a review of Ringboxx — Meet the Ringboxx — Consider the Ringboxx. Like the original iPod, it does a single job well—in this case, bringing ringtones to the home phone—and it comes in white. Instant recipe for success? — Home Phone Tunes hopes so.

House panel approves legal shield for bloggers — WASHINGTON—A congressional panel on Wednesday voted, against the Bush administration's wishes, to shield journalists including advertising-supported bloggers from having to reveal their confidential sources in many situations.

Google: Kill all the patent trolls — Google's head of patents believes the U.S. patent system is "in crisis". Discussing patent reform at the annual Stanford Summit in Northern California, associate general counsel Michelle Lee told conference attendees that the American system is "out-of-balance [and] needs to be remedied".